On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) pointed to testimony at the Afghanistan hearing “that the Doha Agreement was the foundation of everything that followed, including the end,” and also argued that the only way to get answers is “in a bipartisan way, not in an overtly political way.” Meeks also argued that “we did a lot right. Because the generals also said the mission was successful, talked about the historic [nature] of getting 124,000 individuals out in the shortest period of time.”
Meeks stated that Gen. Mark Milley “also said that the Doha Agreement was the foundation of everything that followed, including the end, which says that you can’t just make a judgment of — and give the transparency and give the Gold Star families what they need without looking at the entire picture. And I hope, because I want them to have the answers too, but the only way that we can do that is in a bipartisan way, not in an overtly political way. The sole focus of this hearing was just trying to discredit Joe Biden. Well, without looking at the Doha Agreement and Donald Trump or any other president — we want, I want, I won’t stop until we figure out what went wrong, what went right, and we did a lot right. Because the generals also said the mission was successful, talked about the historic [nature] of getting 124,000 individuals out in the shortest period of time. So, we’ve got to work together, not play politics, a lot of the questions that they were asking — the Republicans were asking, I think [were] all based upon, oh, Biden this, Biden that. Whereas, when you look at the Democratic questions that they were asking, it was trying to get to the meat of the matter of how we can best be transparent with the American people, find out what was right, find out what was wrong, and put the politics behind us.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett